It’s always a thrill to see The Coral perform live, especially during their outdoor summer shows in festival season. Their kaleidoscopic sound is ideally suited to sunny evenings, and their performance at Southampton Sessions was captivating from start to finish.
With the surprise release of their thirteenth studio album ‘388’ still spinning on the turntable, The Coral arrived in fine form. Written and recorded in just two weeks, the album landed last month seemingly out of nowhere – but it transpires that thirteen is most definitely not unlucky for the band!
Its genesis lies in James Skelly and Nick Power’s Q&A tour, which I caught in London in 2024, and it draws on nostalgia for the band’s earliest days as teenagers. It is less about reinvention and more about reflection and it taking The Coral directly back to their roots of where it all began.
‘388’ leans into a raw, live-in-the-room energy over polish or overthinking, stripping back the more conceptual recent work in favour of something instinctive and immediate, a spirit that carried straight into their Southampton Sessions performance.
They kicked off a career-spanning set with ‘Bill McCai’, a long-time fan favourite and live staple from 2003’s ‘Magic and Medicine’, which was quickly followed by the anthemic ‘Pass It On’ from the same album.
‘Simon Diamond’, one of my personal favourites, came next, the psychedelic sea-shanty elevated by Nick Power’s glorious organ playing and the steady anchor of Ian Skelly’s drumming.
The perfectly formed ‘Lover Undiscovered’ was as dreamy as ever, setting the tone for a summer of live music, with James Skelly delivering the heartfelt lyrics in exquisite fashion. The shimmering guitars and Paul Duffy’s infectious bassline really delivered three and a half minutes of absolute magic.
‘People Are Strange’ by The Doors has been a regular part of The Coral’s live shows in recent years, and Nick Power’s organ playing was beautifully fuzzy, giving the track a jaunty yet menacing edge that defines its brilliantly off-kilter energy.
It was great to hear the glittering ‘That’s Where She Belongs’ from 2023’s Sea of Mirrors. It has always felt like pure ‘summer’, and its hazy psychedelic textures and folky leanings felt almost cinematic as the sun began to fade over the south coast.
The Coral served up a set filled with new cuts and old favourites
I had wondered which tracks the band would include from ‘388’ and, in truth, any of its eleven tracks would have been strong contenders. Concise and compelling in equal measure, the ska-tinged ‘Leave It In The Past’, with its propulsive groove, was a real highlight and already feels like a future staple in the band’s canon, its rocksteady leanings landing unexpectedly powerfully in performance.
‘Ride That Train’ was an absolute sonic blast. The intro carries traces of Sroeng Santi’s ‘Nam Mun Pang’ in its groove and rhythmic feel before segueing into an intoxicating piano-led hook and a reggae-tinged bounce that captures the album’s spontaneous, live-in-the-room energy.
From the expansive ‘In the Rain’ to the vibrant, jangly guitars of ‘Jacqueline’, The Coral once again show just how accomplished they are as both songwriters and consummate musicians. The former still sounds as vital as ever, despite being nearly twenty years old.
Closing out their show, ‘In the Morning’ featured some luminous guitar work from Paul Molloy before ‘Dreaming of You’ brought the set to an effervescent, euphoric close.
It was one of those evenings that I did not want to end, a clear affirmation that The Coral remain one of the UK’s most enduring and accomplished bands: a magnificent masterclass in songwriting and musicianship.
Photo Credit: John Johnson
